Movie title madness

Posted November 13, 2011 - 12:06
by
David Konow

How many of you are sick and tired of simplistic movie titles that must have taken all of ten seconds to come up with? Faster. Dirty. Knowing. Fighting.

Ugh! Can’t anyone come up with anything with any thought and imagination? (And before you go saying my book was called Bang Your Head, I never would have called it that in a million years, but got stuck with it anyways.)

Moviefone recently put up its list of worst titles, not all of them I agree with. I think Chopping Mall is a funny title for what it is, funny tag line too, "Where shopping costs you an arm and a leg."

And even though it’s for a schlock-o movie, you gotta love a title like The Incredibly Strange Creatures That Stopped Living and Become Mixed-Up Zombies. (Try and imagine being the guy that had to put all those letters up on a marquee).

Also, I have to put Moviefone to task: What’s wrong with Frankenhooker?

It’s true what Shakespeare once said, what’s in a name, and you can’t judge a movie by a title, ad campaign, or trailer. For example, Heat’s as generic a title as you can come up with, but it was one of the best movies of the ‘90’s.

And remember, some genius tried to tell George Lucas that according to research, no movie with War in the title made over $6 or $7 million, so a sci-fi film with Wars in the title was gonna be a disaster. Texas Chainsaw Massacre was reportedly the most recognized movie title in the world, and this may still be true. (I think #2 was Debbie Does Dallas).

So what are the best titles according to fan polls? Here’s what I gathered from Entertainment Weekly, Boston.com, Bullz Eye, Box of Horror, and several other sources:

Requiem For a Dream, Apocaylpse Now, Die Hard, The Good, the Bad and the Ugly, Lost in Translation, Rebel Without a Cause, Honey I Shrunk the Kids, Casablanca, Witness, Dumb and Dumber, Dude Where’s My Car?, All the President’s Men, Women on the Verge of a Nervous Breakdown, Nick & Nora’s Infinite Playlist, A Fistful of Dollars, Sweet Sweetback’s Baadasssss Song, Breakin’ 2: Electric Boogaloo, Too Wong Foo, Thanks For Everything!, Julie Newmar, Dr. Strangelove, Or: How I Learned to Stop Worrying and Love the Bomb, Bring Me the Head of Alfredo Garcia, Faster, Pussycat! Kill! Kill!, and of course, Snakes on a Plane, just to name a few.